Special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday wrapped up his nearly two-year probe into whether President Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia — finding, according to a four-page summary by Attorney General William Barr, that there had been no conspiracy or coordination in that regard.

Mueller’s report left unresolved the question of whether Trump had obstructed justice, Barr wrote. It stated that “while this report does not conclude that the President has committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

The lengthy investigation incensed the President, produced 34 indictments and transformed the strong-jawed, taciturn ex-FBI director into a liberal resistance hero of sorts. While Trump raged on Twitter about what he perceived to be an unjust “witch hunt,” artists and merchandisers spun Democrats’ hopes into Mueller-themed tributes and talismans: prayer candles, jewelry, baseball caps, mugs, T-shirts, buttons and even dolls, available on sites like EtsyETSY, +2.20%
, Redbubble and CafePress.

The souvenirs could find a new audience among Trump supporters

Now some who bought those items say they’re not ready to throw them out, while some sellers are waiting to see how the Mueller report saga plays out in coming days.

There’s even potential for Mueller products to become a “validation item” for Trump boosters, Paul Palmer, a senior lecturer in marketing at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, told MarketWatch. “It’s going to be that coffee mug that sits on your desk that says, ‘Mueller report — it was all garbage, it was all hype, I told you so,’” he suggested. “My team won; your team lost.”

The President has already capitalized on Barr’s summary of the Mueller report by dropping a limited-edition $30 T-shirt. It features a screenshot of a Trump tweet reading “WITCH HUNT!,” along with a number to subscribe to campaign text messages.

“In simple terms, Mueller is entertainment,” Palmer said. The frenzy and excitement around Mueller’s imminent report had fueled “debate and anticipation,” he added, “which ultimately drives sales and continued demand.”

Palmer, a former Hasbro Inc. senior brand manager who worked on the Star Wars product line from 1999 to 2003, likened the Mueller probe’s process to a movie property.

“You have to think of it through a theatrical lens, and think of the leaks and speculation being very similar to what you’d have with movie trailers and initial screenings,” he said. “There’s been so much hype, so much discussion, so much energy expended in anticipation — almost as if you’d have [with] a blockbuster movie that’s been heavily promoted.”

And while movie merchandise may lose some of its allure after the film’s release, people who bought Mueller-themed items say they’re not ready to part with their purchases.

Prayer candles and ‘lucky charm’ pendants won’t go in the trash just yet

Elayne Burke, a 50-year-old attorney who lives in Washington, D.C., owns two $22 highlighter-yellow Mueller prayer candles. On certain days, she said, she would light a Mueller candle after arriving home from work to her Dupont Circle apartment, where she has a view of the National Cathedral and the Russian embassy.

“I’d just light my Mueller candle and be like, ‘You’re going down at some point, hopefully,’ looking at the Russian embassy,” Burke told MarketWatch. “It was just a fun way to let off some energy about the current political climate that we find ourselves in, which obviously feels amplified for me living in D.C.”

“I think that there’s going to be some amount of controversy with the release of the full report, and with internet culture, there could even be a backswing of irony.
— Jason Davis, seller of $10 “It’s Mueller Time” enamel pins

After Barr issued his summary over the weekend, Burke noticed the candle on her desk and started walking it to the kitchen to toss it in the garbage. Instead, she wound up placing it with the other Mueller candle on a shelf. “I thought I might just throw it in the trash, like, ‘OK, well, that’s done,’” she said. “[But] he did an awesome job. I don’t want to throw it out. We don’t know anything yet.”

Jane Cullinan, a retired marketing executive from Piedmont, Calif., thought of Mueller as “honest, forthright and admirable,” and says she trusted him to do a decent job as special counsel despite their political differences. (Cullinan is a Democrat; Mueller is a registered Republican.) A friend Cullinan had met in a conversational Spanish class gave her a necklace with a Mueller pendant ($15 on Etsy), and after its picture faded, Cullinan bought more for herself and some friends.

She wore the long chain, which tucked easily under her clothes, to send Mueller good vibes throughout his investigation. “I don’t think of myself as a superstitious person, but it was kind of like a lucky charm,” Cullinan, 69, told MarketWatch. “I just felt like it was my way of semi-secretly supporting him.”

But Monday, she said, was the first day in many months she did not wear her necklace. “I wore it to hope that he would be healthy and happy every single day, and able to complete his work,” she said. “Now he has completed his work, so now I’m not wearing the necklace.” Cullinan plans to save the jewelry, predicting that Mueller “will go down in history as an important figure.”

Meanwhile, Kristen Blush of New York’s Upper West Side feels that the investigation remains an “open-ended situation” until Mueller’s report is released to the public in full. Blush, a 38-year-old photographer who has worn her $20 handmade acrylic pink Mueller earrings to events and some political marches, says she’ll hang on to them.

“Maybe I’ll be wearing them to say, ‘Where is this report?’ until we see the report,” said Blush, author of the Hillary Clinton-endorsed photography book “The Revolution is Female.” “If there’s a protest, like a ‘Where’s the friggin’ report?’ protest, I’d join in on that and wear the earrings.”

One Mueller merchandise seller saw an uptick in sales this week

As for the makers who created Mueller merchandise, some are waiting for more information before they consider pulling their special-prosecutor wares. Clare Winter, an entrepreneurial single mom whose Mueller devotional candle (then $12, now $16) pulled in about $38,000 in sales during one week leading up to Christmas, suggested that drawing conclusions from Barr’s four-page summary was “premature.”

“Until we actually see the report, I don’t want to be limited in my definition of … what [Mueller’s] long-term impact is,” said Winter, 50, of Charlottesville, Va. “I’m not ready yet to pass him on, to get rid of him.”

Winter, who says she created the candles as “a viable vehicle that people could put their faith in,” said she’d seen “a surprising uptick in site visits and six orders for Mueller candles” between Monday and Tuesday. “Sure, that’s not many, but I wasn’t expecting any. In fact, I figured there would be no orders ... or site visits for at least a couple of weeks, if then,” she said. “Maybe something is brewing.”

“I think I’ll still have it on my site, because I have a feeling he’s going to be pulled in for questioning,” added Julie Simanski, a 54-year-old community-college professor from Ankeny, Iowa, who sells $12 handmade glitter-detailed dolls depicting Mueller as Superman.

Jason Davis, the Atlanta-based owner of the online store Real Sic, has sold between 500 and 600 “It’s Mueller Time” enamel pins at $10 a pop since debuting them last year. Sales tended to spike a couple of days after major Mueller news dropped. Davis, who called the Mueller spectacle “the best entertainment tax dollars could buy,” is now waiting to see how quickly his inventory of about 170 pins sells before deciding whether to make more.

“I think that there’s going to be some amount of controversy with the release of the full report, and with internet culture, there could even be a backswing of irony,” he said. “We’re selling it to the left, and then we’ll start selling it to the right.”

Overall demand for these goods, Palmer added, is likely to wane if and when the public has digested and analyzed the full Mueller report — “reminiscent of a movie we’ve long anticipated.”

Autographs and personal effects could have real lasting value

Objects connected to Mueller the person, on the other hand, may have more staying power. Any autographs, business cards or personal effects associated with the 74-year-old attorney “will remain more collectible and desirable than mass-produced [shirts], buttons, etc. that anyone with a credit card can order over the internet,” said Hunter Oatman-Stanford, a collectibles expert and senior producer for Collectors Weekly. The No. 1 reason: rarity.

There’s potential for Mueller products to become a “validation item” for Trump boosters.
— Paul Palmer, a senior lecturer in marketing at Indiana University, told MarketWatch.

“This is true of almost all political figures,” Oatman-Stanford told MarketWatch. “For example, if you look for [former special counsel for the Bill Clinton probe] ‘Kenneth Starr’ on eBay, the highest-priced items are generally autographed [items] or original documents pertaining to his investigation.”

While the special counsel has remained largely private — he was once pronounced “the most unknowable man in Washington” by its paper of record — there’s a market for reselling objects people have wrestled away from their encounters with him, Oatman-Stanford said.

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